History of Classical Music
This page is a collection of information about music from the from the fall of the Western Roman Empire (around the year 500) to the early 20th century. Western Classical Music Resources Howard Goodall's Story of Music The Enjoyment of Music - 12th Edition A Guide to Medieval And Renaissance Instruments Georgetown University. The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies The Method Behind the Music : Contains a music dictionary, information about music notation, instruments, and music style periods. Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical Era Music : This resource has information about numerous composers. Baroque music guide J.S. Bach homepage http://www.gfhandel.org/ Classical Net: Master Composer Index Fast and Friendly Guide to Beethoven A history of 20th Century popular music Why Study Western Classical Music? The history of Western Classical Music shows how humans have naturally progressed in making music. I think all individual musicians go through a similar process to the whole of humanity when learning to create music. People start with monophonic music, playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Mary Had A Little Lamb or things like that. Just like the Gregorian chants sung by people in stone churches. Not only can people see themselves in the people who created classical music, they can also learn from them. A great way to learn music theory is by learning the material in the same sequence as it was discovered. This allows for a better understanding of theory, because newer concepts often require an understanding of the concepts that predated them. Don't throw a 3rd grader into algebra, so to speak. The Middle Ages The Middle Ages or Medieval Period, lasted from the fall of The Western Roman Empire to the Renaissance. The type of music we are going to focus on is Gregorian Chant, or Plainsong/Plainchant. This was not the only type of music that existed in the west during The Middle Ages, however it is the work of the genre that paves the road for the classical music that comes after it. = Early Gregorian Chant In its earliest form Gregorian Chant had no accompaniment, no rhythm, and and no harmonization. Many men would all sing the same song in unison. This continued for many lifetimes. Until boys were added to the choir. These boys sang an octave higher than the men, creating a fuller brighter texture when the choir sang. (It's called an octave because in church music at the time there were only 8 notes to choose from. On the white notes of a modern keyboard the two lines of voices are only 8 notes apart.). Around the ninth century a new form of harmonization was invented called organum. Rather than the polyphony consisting of a two separate melodies an octave apart as before, in organum the melodies are sung in parallel. Meaning, if one Melodie goes up a note, the other will go down a note. It is said this technique is called organum because to the inventors it sounded like an organ when performed.